In my extensive travels across the state, I’ve learned a lot from Vermonters. Most I have spoken with look at the changes UVM has undergone in the last 15 years — from state-of-the-art new buildings that have transformed our campus to research that has improved the lives of Vermonters, to ri…
Air Force One was all gassed up and ready to go. And it was easy to understand why: The personal transport vehicle that ferries the president of the United States was parked in enemy territory, having borne the commander in chief to a vipers’ nest filled with mortal enemies. A quick getaway …
Every holiday season, I’m reminded of a “graduation” speech that was given to the eighth-graders at the Main Street Middle School many years ago. As I recall, Eli Rosenberg, the teacher who was chosen by the students to give the address, spoke about the need to live more lightly on the plane…
Ron Powers’ commentary (“Measuring the rights of the mentally ill”) harkens back to that period in this nation’s history when white men denied African slaves personhood and treated them as property, a status the United States Supreme Court codified in its infamous Dred Scott decision. Mr. Po…
About a week ago, preacher Franklin Graham and U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry dropped bombshells that are causing me to write about something I would have never dreamed needed to be addressed in this country.
Poor Elijah’s niece drops by periodically to discuss education issues. The only thing they agree about is they both teach for a living. As far as she’s concerned, he’s a relic of the pedagogical Jurassic Age. He regards her as a visitor from a brave new education world that’s rarely brave or new.
Well, it’s that magical time of year again, the slog between Thanksgiving and Christmas where people — particularly baby boomers — wonder why everything seems so ridiculous when it’s supposed to be either festive fun or mystically religious.
In 2015, after literally more than a hundred years of intermittent trying, Vermont’s educational leadership succeeded in giving its bureaucracy the power and duty to force mergers of Vermont’s public schools into larger districts (Act 46).
In 2015, after literally more than a hundred years of intermittent trying, Vermont’s educational leadership succeeded in giving its bureaucracy the power and duty to force mergers of Vermont’s public schools into larger districts (Act 46).
It saddens me to read the town of Proctor is considering the sale of 1,600 acres of Proctor watershed land in Chittenden to a real estate investment expert from Florida who may no longer allow public use of the land, when the Green Mountain National Forest has offered to pay fair market valu…
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, we put out a post on social media asking what traditions folks had for the holiday. The responses ranged from “Ignoring your stupid rag” to “Picking fights with family.” A few people responded with some nice thoughts, and then they were immediately pou…
I was thrilled with the drama and excitement of witnessing Mikaela Shiffrin’s two slalom runs in the Women’s World Cup at Killington on Sunday, which she won by more than two seconds. This followed her close third place finish behind two racers from Italy in the Giant Slalom on Saturday.
For weeks now, lawmakers, advocates, organizations and individuals from around Vermont joined the chorus of more than 140,000 public comments submitted on a rule that would force many Americans to lose their federal food stamps.
John McClaughry had a point in his recent op-ed (“Can’t be done,” Nov. 30-Dec. 2). It will, indeed, be exceedingly difficult, perhaps even impossible, for the world to reduce carbon emissions to net zero anytime soon — even by 2050.
We may be about to witness something none of us have ever seen before, which is a large piece of public land with full public access and heavy public use being sold to a very private wealthy person who has stated he does not want the public on this land again after he buys it.
OneCare Vermont — the private, for-profit company tasked with carrying out the state’s health care payment reform effort — is running into trouble.
I was recently asked to become the ambassador for the forthcoming Gift of Life Marathon, set to begin next week on Dec. 10, and saying "yes" to this was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made. Just a little more than a year ago, I was injured in an explosion while on vacation, causing…
Gov. Scott recently took some heat from the media over a statement he made following the announcement by Energizer they would be closing their Bennington plant and moving its operations to Wisconsin. The governor said:
Now that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday are behind us, we need to re-evaluate.
President Trump recently signed the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act directing the Treasury Department to create currency honoring women who led the fight to pass the 19th Amendment, which provided women with the right to vote after it was ratified in 1920. After showing of…
This weekend, Killington Resort will once again host the Audi FIS Ski Women’s World Cup. And, once again, it promises to be a memorable event.
There are many areas where rapid change is needed to confront and deal with climate change and ecosystem degradation. But our societies mostly refuse to face and discuss these issues.
As the beginning of the 2020 legislative session approaches, Vermonters should be aware a carbon tax is being revived — again. This isn’t hype or hysteria about the prospect of something that may be proposed. Rather, this is actively being pushed and pursued by Vermont elected officials and …
Almost lost amid the mind-boggling shuffle of Executive Branch malfeasance recently was the exposure of senior presidential adviser and prince of Trumpian darkness, Stephen Miller, as pretty much everything we ever thought he was, right from the beginning of the reign of terror that continue…
Editor’s note: Vermont By Degrees is a series of weekly columns written by representatives of colleges and universities from around the state about the challenges facing higher education at this time.
Loyalty and self-interest are powerful motivating forces.
David Emmons handed me a stack of photographs: snapshots of smiling boaters, water skiers, people diving off their docks, and fishing. Our boat was floating in the middle of Little Lake St. Catherine, a lobe off the southern end of the much larger and deeper Lake St. Catherine. With us was W…
A popular commitment among candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president is a declaration of the year in which the United States must be made to achieve “net-zero carbon dioxide emissions.” Joe Biden vowed to get us there by 2050. Andrew Yang bid 2049, and Corey Booker offered 2…
Policy wonks, not getting the results they hoped for (and being a touch lazy), invented a new research method called the “intraocular traumatic test.” What that means is look at the data and if the result hits you between the eyes, it’s significant. Naturally, this kind of eyeballing lends i…
The breakdown in global recycling markets and the growing public alarm over plastic waste in the ocean has prompted appropriately consequential action across the globe.
Around the table this day, we count our blessings and offer thanks. The day has come to have different meaning for Americans. But for presidents, it always has been a time to reflect on the time in which they were selected to serve.
It is the season of giving thanks. The autumn harvest is complete, and we thank farmers, particularly our Vermont farmers, for providing us with food. Thanksgiving is a special time for family and friends to reconnect, pause and enjoy a few hours together over a meal — a meal, thanks to a farmer.
Abraham Lincoln and many others in his time were against slavery. Yet they opposed its abrupt end on the basis of necessity. To push for the abolition of an institution too entrenched to fail, they feared they would destroy the economy and cause civil conflict. Thus, permitting the existing …
Regardless of income or background, a home is a basic necessity that allows everyone to pursue and achieve their goals. When we can’t afford to live where we work and have family, we have to make difficult choices: to move away from our communities and take on a long commute, or cut back on …
It's either black or white with the impeachment of President Trump.
Enormous numbers of people are not equipped to negotiate complex mental and emotional issues. The wonders of psychotropic drugs have been relied upon for 50 to 60 years now to deal with mental health issues, rather than talking to another person. Without a capacity for critical psychological…
Winter is fast approaching and it is important to prepare your animals who are kept outside for the colder weather. Most large animals are kept outside in the winter and there are certain steps you should take to ensure they stay safe.
It appears the Trump administration and the USDA are determined to make the working class and the poor suffer more.
I listened to a cassette tape many years ago that posed this question: What's wrong with people today? "People simply don't think," was the answer.
This month marks the American Cancer Society’s 44th annual Great American Smokeout, a day dedicated to helping people quit tobacco. To mark this important occasion, our lawmakers should work to address one of the most disturbing ways tobacco is impacting our communities: youth tobacco use.
I’m glad to see you cover the Vermont Supreme Court ruling in favor of the patient who was forcibly drugged at the Brattleboro Retreat ("High court overturns involuntary medication order," Nov. 15). This is a story about our legal rights to determine our own medical care — an important victory.
Student debt is a crippling issue for America.
Like the rest of our nation, Vermont has a checkered history regarding race relations, and the acceptance or rejection of non-Caucasian people in our nearly monochromatic white state. “Checkered,” like the light and dark squares of a checkerboard, means that bad, but also good, things have h…
Several years ago — 10 or 12 years would be about right — a central Vermont journalist was returning home after working late on a bitterly, jarringly cold winter night. It was a little past midnight when he drove through Barre and saw, in the lighted, recessed doorway of a downtown store, a …
Last week when the president made his trip to Dayton, Ohio in the wake of the mass shooting there, he was met by chanting protesters. Their demands that he “Do Something” are a cry for real change, for concrete steps to stop the killing beyond sending thoughts and prayers.
As Vermonters turn on their furnaces and prepare for Thanksgiving, the Trump administration is once again taking aim at some of our most vulnerable neighbors. The White House and USDA recently announced their third attempt in the past 12 months to go around Congress and take food away from m…
First off, let me say Kanye West is a marvelously talented 42-year-old musician, lyricist and producer, having received over 20 Grammies. For those who don’t know his work, it will be well worth your time to acquaint yourself with it. He is a rapper, but he also incorporates various other st…
The rock has rolled downhill again. The Sisyphean slog toward rational mental health care once more has been flattened under the weight of judicial folly.
There are some basic lessons in motivation and behavior that Vermont’s Proficiency Based Learning education initiative could learn from this fall’s high school state championships. Watching the games, it was a thrill to see these young athletes use the skills they gained through intense trai…
Nov. 21 was Rural Health Care Day across the United States. In honor of this day, I want to illustrate the work we are doing locally in northern New York and Vermont, as we adapt to meet the needs of aging populations, changes in how care is paid and reimbursed, and ever-increasing costs of …
